Day Twenty-Three - Seward to Glennallen, AK

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It rained again last night. I hope it didn't wash away ALL our trophy dust and dirt. How will people know we drove to Alaska and back if the truck and trailer aren't filthy when we pull up to the house?!? Our truck and trailer are the color of the dust and dirt so you can't see it anyway unless you get really close. From even a short distance it will still look the same as when we left. Our only hope is the tinted windows; they show dirt really well!

It was raining again when Mike opened the door this morning to take Charlie out for his after breakfast walk. Charlie took one look outside and backed up as far as the leash would let him. When Mike turned to pick him up he dropped the leash and Charlie beat a hasty retreat toward his bed!

Time of departure 9:30 - 15 minutes later than our goal. We were actually hooked up and ready to go before Teri and Dave for the first time since we left the house!

Mike looked at the forecast for today. We were in for a wet morning. Maybe that would mean more mud splattered on the truck and trailer. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Glennallen is supposed to be warm and sunny.

Teri and I chatted over the walkie-talkies - what a weird name for those things, sounds like something a kindergartener came up with. Anyway, we were agreeing that we've been extremely fortunate that we've had good weather so far, especially on the days we've had activities planned. Today is the first time it's rained during the day. We've had a couple times where it started to sprinkle just as we finished our outing, but even then it didn't develop into a full rain.

Leaving the Kenai Peninsula, the rain has come to a halt. The clouds are higher and thinner, the sky a bit brighter.

It happened again. We stopped for a break and the slides wouldn't budge. Mike made sure he disconnected the shore power before plugging into the truck this morning, but it still tripped and broke the circuit. At least now we know how to fix it. We just need to figure out why it's doing that.

Farther on it began to rain again and the closer we got to Anchorage, the more of it there was. I just hoped mud was in our future.

Through Anchorage and into Wasilla we drove. We stopped again in Wasilla, this time for a washer for the bathroom sink cold water line. Mike had still been finding water in the basement well under the bathroom sink. He'd wrapped each line with a piece of paper towel to see if it would show which line was the one leaking. The one around the cold water came up as the culprit. He unscrewed it and noticed the washer looked a little crooked in the fitting. He found an RV repair shop in Wasilla and explained the problem. The person he spoke with agreed it was probably a washer that needed replacing. We pulled into the parking lot, Mike went into the parts department to get the new washer, and I got to work trying to pry the old washer out. At home, when I take the silicone washers out of my water bottle to wash them and the cap I use a toothpick and run it under the silicone ring until it comes up. I tried that with this one. No dice. I broke both ends of three toothpicks before giving up. The first fifth-wheel we bought came with absolutely everything including a fairly comprehensive sewing kit. When we sold that trailer and bought this one, the sewing kit was one of the many things that we transferred to the new rig. The sewing kit had a seam ripper in it. Thin, stronger than a wooden toothpick, I tried using that to coax the washer out. At some point in my endeavor I noticed it wasn't a typical washer. This one had a domed part that stuck up from the flat circular piece. I tried and tried, working both the flat part and domed part with the seam ripper. While I was wedging it between the outer edge of the washer and the inside of the fitting, yep, the seam ripper snapped. Now I had a sliver of metal stuck down inside the fitting! Aargghh! Eventually I was able to get both the longer tip of the seam ripper and the washer worked out of the fitting. It looked just like the two Mike had come back with. I squished the washer down inside the fitting as far as I could, then screwed the fitting back onto the bottom of the faucet to move it down to where it needed to be. I unscrewed it to make sure it was evenly pressed into place before reattaching it permanently. I turned the faucet on, contorted my hand and arm under and around the sink and up to the faucet connection. Dry ... for now. Hopefully it will stay that way.

There was more drizzle and fog as we climbed into and descended out of the low clouds. The dismal gray was softened by large patches of bright pink fireweed and low mounded grasses or shrubs with clusters of tiny purple flowers. I actually like this kind of weather because of the scenery and mood it creates. Bands of low clouds nestled among the forested mountains; makes me want to curl up with a cozy blanket, a cup of hot tea or hot chocolate and a good book. I took a bazillion pictures of the low light gray clouds against the dark green backdrop of the forests climbing the mountainsides. I won't bore you with too many of them in the gallery.

We saw our fifth glacier today. This one was long and relatively flat, not cascading down over a mountain ridge. It followed the contour of the base of the mountain and continued farther back than I could see through the lens of my camera. I believe this was the Matanuska Glacier. I saw a sign for it earlier.

Not far from the glacier Dave had to pull over and breakout the reserve fuel he'd been carrying in the bed of his truck. We were about 50 miles from out next base camp. Missed it by that much! A few miles later, of course, there was a gas station so both trucks got their bellies filled. Across the highway from the gas station we noticed another glacier across the valley to our right - Nelchina. Number six!

A short time later we pulled into our new digs. For the next four days we have creekfront property. Well, almost. Our site is a pull-thru and the road we pulled through from is between us and the creek. It's a pretty view; the grass on the near side, the creek, and the hillside on the opposite bank. The creek is fairly shallow in this part so you get to see the ripples made by the rocks in the riverbed. The park is quaint. The main building, the Roadhouse, is the office, gift shop and on-site restaurant in one. It's a long building constructed from horizontal logs up to the bottom of the windows, a band of vertical logs the same height as the windows that wraps around the building, and horizontal logs again from the top of the windows to the roof. There were several smaller buildings that look to be cabins scattered throughout the park as well as two or three bathhouses. A husband and wife own the property and cover all the duties associated with an RV park.

Time to set up, relax a bit, eat some dinner and work on the blog.

I'll see you again soon.

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